Category Archives: living in Metro Manila

Deed is done

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Traffic jam everywhere! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I braved the horrible traffic today. First, I needed to fix my bank accounts because the bank has frozen them. Apparently, I didn’t do an update of my personal and professional info for xxx period… So I couldn’t withdraw from the ATM and couldn’t do online banking 🤦‍♀️. I have five accounts with them that needed updating so it took a while. But at least it’s done now. 😑

Then I braved Greenhills to sell my iPad. Finally, it’s done. I’m not really maximizing it anyway.

While I was waiting for them to finish testing the unit and for cash to be paid to me, I was flicking furiously on my phone and doing something sinister…

I finally pulled the trigger. 🫠

Now I’m waiting for it to get cleared… Hopefully by Dec 27 it’s on its way to me. Why did I do it instead of reinvesting almost 40k back to my house?

Because I’m a fucking tech junkie 🤦‍♀️ I need saving from myself.

Ok, I promise myself this is the last big-ticket item I will buy that is not for the house.

Gyoza for hunger pangs. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After having a very late lunch (almost 3 pm), I drove back home via the maze that Waze has directed me to use because freaking EDSA was not moving.

To come home to this:

Kimchi playing with a rubber band. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Sushi watching me watching over them. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

These cats are the crazy reasons why I’m spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day alone. Because of the cats that cannot feed themselves and clean up their poop.

I will be leaving early 26th because my family will be checking into this resort.

Hot springs in December!

The ponds become a lagoon from October (typhoon season) as these converge with Laguna Lake. Then these will go back to being ponds when the dry season sets in by Feb.

I will try sketching here but on Monday I’m on editing duty 😭

G.O.A.T.

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I’m still love struck with how the game last night was played. It’s a fitting retirement for Messi, who is now elevated to Diego Maradona level.

I miss playing football. At least Twin I now understands why I love this sport because we watched it together last night and she was equally excited as I was. She said she is now interested in joining the girls’ team once we have transferred here in my hometown. I told my nephew, who teaches football under xxx team, that his cousin wants to join.

This sounds wonderful because they will be more exposed to team sports and more physical activities.

Meanwhile, my sister expressed her defiance against this government through the Christmas decor she installed in my mom’s house.

They’re so pink!

I plan to go back to QC on Dec 22 because Ate C will be leaving for her home province so I need to come back for the cats. In the meantime, I’m bringing something to read with me while I laze around my mom’s house.

Kimchi wants to come. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I packed books this time as should be reading physical books instead of doom scrolling on social media. I missed reading but I get easily distracted now by my phone. I should have a digital detox and do analog things like drawing and reading. I’m a bad example for my girls. 🤦‍♀️

This has been with me for quite some time and I never quite found the time to open my hoarded books. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We left QC at around past 10 pm tonight because we fetched my nephew, his gf, and my sis-in-law from Araneta Coliseum after the UP-Ateneo basketball game. Araneta Center was clogged with cars and traffic was terrible. It took us about an hour to extricate ourselves from there.

So tired.

Torture

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I found forever on EDSA. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I spent half of my day yesterday just driving. 🤦‍♀️ Only 14km roundtrip but it felt like 120km.

I went to Greenhills to have my daughter’s phone repaired (cracked LCD) and to buy a door knob for my room here in the apartment. OMG! It’s horrific out there!

It was so exhausting that I fell asleep on my bed with my lights on. 🫠

Meanwhile, I’m trying to sell my iPad 9 with 256GB ROM to my bro since I want to shift to Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. Ipad 9’s screen is too big for me whereas Samsung’s Tab S8 can be held by one hand. Plus iPad’s RAM is 3GB vs Samsung’s 8GB RAM.

I just lightly used this because it was just too big. I didn’t use the power brick and cord because I knew eventually I would have to sell this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Can be a semi-laptop replacement. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I told my bro that all the accessories are included like the pen and two covers, one of the covers is a keyboard combo that makes it more viable for him to be a laptop replacement when he has meetings and so on.

I tried using it as a laptop replacement but it just doesn’t cut it. The only time I was able to use it as such was when I tweaked (at my mom’s house) and read my speech during last August’s graduation rites of my undergrad college.

I could barely use it for work because it was too big to chuck in my handbag. Might as well bring my full-powered laptop with me if I still need to bring another bag.

When I travel, I find myself still reaching for my phone to scroll through IG and watch Youtube videos. It takes two hands to be able to watch anything on this iPad.

OS upgrades until 2026, security updates until 2027 or 2028.

But I’m still on a fence here since parts for iPads are easier to get here (albeit the generic ones from some Shenzen factory) than for Samsung Tabs. Resale value also lower for Android tablets.

But if I buy it now, S8 comes with a free slim case with keyboard.

I’ll visit a Samsung store to check it out before I let go of the iPad.

Hmmm so it seems like the world is conspiring against me. The Tab S8 in brick and mortar stores no longer offer the bundled keyboard case because it was a promo until supplies last. 😵‍💫

In other domestic developments, I finally have a door knob after destroying my door when my kitties were locked inside.

The carpenters had to put body fillers to repair the door. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The workers have to sand this down tomorrow so to make the surface smooth and for the new coat of paint to stick.

I now have a functional door lock after months of making do with a barrel lock and a duct taped hole. 🥴

Home but not home

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Ah EDSA, how do I hate thee? Photo by CallMeCreation.com

On the way to my appointment in BGC…

I left after lunch and it only took me 1 hr and 30 mins to reach my hometown. Travel time from QC to BGC? Almost the same 😑

As spartan as it can be. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I checked into my Airbnb to drop off my stuff that I can’t leave inside the car unattended. This Airbnb is really a student dorm. But since college classes are not yet full face-to-face, some dorm rooms had to be let out to short-term renters.

I had an early dinner with my best friend and we had non-stop gabfest for two hours. Then went to visit another friend at her apartment to bring gifts and spent another 2 hrs talking with her.

After that, I had coffee (wellll, it’s tea actually) with my sis-in-law at Starbucks and talked until the coffee shop was closing.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And now I’m back to my sad dorm life 🤣

Dorm courtyard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Only a few students are here. It’s kinda lonely. Although it’s better probably because college students are looouuuuddddddd!

Let’s see if I can have my walk around campus tomorrow before I go to my house.

Schadenfreude

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Karma is out there to bite your ass.

This person, whom I refuse to name on this blog, is the primary mother troll who had released his troll farm on me a few years ago when I criticized a government agency (which allegedly employed him as an attack dog a.k.a. social media handler) regarding an infrastructure project bidding.

For two weeks they tried to destroy me online. Even attacked my company’s social media assets, much to the shock and confusion of our APAC and global headquarters.

I do believe the universe will be out to get you if you haven’t been nice.

My friends and I are ROFLing now.

Speaking of trolls, I once again dodged the prinicpal of these creatures by leaving the conference venue early today. I AGAIN didn’t check the program—it was only during the welcoming remarks did I learn that Marcos is supposed to speak this afternoon. 🤦‍♀️ So the conference delegates were told to avoid going in and out of the area by 2 pm because the Presidential Security Group needed to check and secure the premises.

I used our PH reporter’s media pass that’s why I had a different name on my tag. Our PH reporter is in another event across the metro.

I left at 11:30 am. Good thing I was able to ambush interview my targets early.

I really can’t stomach the thought of being in the same room as this thief.

I just can’t.

I have covered past presidents and sat through some of their speeches but the last two presidents… 🤬 Nope.

I quickly escaped to SM MOA (since I was just at Marriott) to write my stories, buy Christmas gifts, and then I took Skyway so I can fly back home.

Or so I thought I could get back home quickly.

It still took me two hours to get home. I left at past 3 pm, I arrived at past 5 pm. 🫠 And to think that I already used Skyway to bypass Edsa or C5 to reach QC. 😵‍💫

I just want to stay put in the next few days… Traffic jams are so bad that they suck the soul out of you.

All coffee/dinner with friends would have to be pushed back after Christmas. It’s just insane to be on the road these days.

The pomp and the ornate vs my simple tiny house

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Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Cubao. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My mom stayed with me overnight because she is attending the ordination of priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Cubao. One of the new priests is a family friend.

Just like anything that has something to do with the Catholic Church, the ceremony is ornate and full of pomp. And loooong. So is the church itself.

So here I am, 2 hrs into the ceremony, outside the church and sketching my way out of boredom.

Looking for better angles. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I have all the time for the details… Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
The details are testing my patience. The sun is beating down on me. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

It’s drizzling now so I’ll just finish this later. At least the entire pencil sketching is done on-site. 🤣

Where shall I bring my mom after this…

After church, we went to SM MOA so that my mom 1) can buy new underwear (her excuse to go to a mall); and go to St. Paul’s to buy her 4 volumes of 2023 prayer books. Along the way, we encountered a guitar center. Twin I is saving up for an acoustic guitar.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I thought I found the perfect guitar for her. Not too big, sounds ok and has an inlet on the side to plug it into an amplifier.

The black one looks so cool. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After ticking off everything in my mom’s checklist, we drove to my hometown.

My granite countertop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Entire wall/s and under the counter will be installed with cabinets. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s a tiny kitchen by normal home standards but it’s bigger than my current one in my apartment. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
One of my kitchen cabinets. Better build (wood laminate) compared to Ikea’s MDF. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
No tiles yet in my bathroom but I see now the concrete niche for shampoos and soap. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This is where the TV will be hung. My contractor said he will build shelves around the post to make it disappear. Good. I have too many books. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s blurry but this closet is tall. I modeled it after the Ikea Pax I designed online. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My huge bedroom window. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The welding works will be done in January so my stainless steel staircase, water reservoir tower, and fire exit platform will be made. February will just be cabinet works and finishing like painting and installation of shelves. By that time I can pull out my books from my apartment so I can put them in the shelves. That way I would know if I need to install more.

I’m excited.